Soup with Sprats in Tomato Sauce and Beans

Name: Soup with Sprats in Tomato Sauce and Beans
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 1.5 l (3 servings)
Ingredients: Potatoes – 3 pcs. White cabbage – 300 g. Canned beans – 250 g. Red onion – 1 pc. Carrot – 1 pc. Tomato juice – 250 ml. Sprats in tomato sauce – 150 g. Bay leaf – 3 pcs. Dill – 30 g. Spring onion – 20 g. Salt – to taste.

Published: 06.09.2026

Updated: 06.09.2026

🤤 Здорові рецепти щодня

Cooking time 1 hour Portions 1.5 l (3 servings)

Sprats in tomato are already a finished product, they aren't boiled. In this soup they go into the pot last and stay on the heat for five minutes together with the cabbage and the sautéed vegetables — exactly long enough to heat through. Boiled longer, they break down into fibers and stop being noticeable in the bowl at all.

The second thing that holds this soup together is that the beans are canned as well, and they go in after the potatoes, when those are already half done. Both canned goods play the same role here: they add substance without demanding time.

Tomato comes in twice — as juice in the sautéed vegetables and as sauce from the tin. This isn't excess: the juice gives the vegetables their acidity while they are still in the pan, so the sauté goes into the soup ready rather than raw.

The substance here comes from beans and cabbage; the same tin of sprats carried by fried millet instead is soup with canned sprats and millet. For a soup where the fish is actually boiled rather than warmed through, there is fish soup from mackerel heads.

Caloric content: 62kcal

Ingredients

Potatoes – 3 pcs.
White cabbage – 300 g.
Canned beans – 250 g.
Red onion – 1 pc.
Carrot – 1 pc.
Tomato juice – 250 ml.
Sprats in tomato sauce – 150 g.
Bay leaf – 3 pcs.
Dill – 30 g.
Spring onion – 20 g.
Salt – to taste.

Cut the potatoes

Peel the potatoes, rinse them and cut them into medium-sized cubes.

Cut the onion

Peel the red onion and chop it finely.

Grate the carrot

Peel the carrot, rinse it and grate it on a coarse grater.

Prepare the cabbage

Remove the outer leaves from the cabbage, rinse it and pat it dry with a paper towel.

Boil the potatoes

Transfer the potatoes to a pot, cover with water, bring to a boil and cook for 20 minutes until half done.

Add the beans

Add the canned beans to the half-cooked potatoes.

Make the sauté

Heat a little oil in a pan and fry the red onion with the carrot. Pour in the tomato juice and stew the vegetables under a lid over low heat.

Add the cabbage, the sauté and the sprats

Put the cabbage, the finished sauté and the sprats in tomato sauce into the pot.

Finish in five minutes

Add the bay leaf and the chopped herbs, cook over low heat for another five minutes — and take it off.

Notes

The potatoes are boiled until half done. Twenty minutes, no longer: after that they finish cooking together with the cabbage.
The beans are added after the potatoes. Canned beans cook down quickly, and put in at the start they turn into purée.
The sauté is stewed under a lid. The tomato juice has to evaporate and thicken in the pan, not in the soup.
The cabbage goes in together with the sauté. The same five minutes are enough for it, and it stays firm.
Bay leaf and herbs go in for the last five minutes. Long boiling makes bay leaf bitter.
Red onion is milder here than the ordinary kind. It is sweeter and doesn't overpower the tomato.

Questions and Answers

Why must the sprats not be boiled?

They are already cooked — this is canned fish. In the pot they only need to heat through, five minutes together with the cabbage and the sauté. Boiled longer, they break down into fibers and stop being noticeable in the bowl.

When should the beans be added?

After the potatoes, when those are already half done. Canned beans cook down quickly and, put in at the start, they turn into purée.

Why tomato twice — as juice and as sauce from the tin?

The juice gives the vegetables their acidity while they are still in the pan, so the sauté goes into the soup ready rather than raw. The sauce from the tin comes in with the fish.

Can ordinary onion be used?

It can, but red onion is milder here: it is sweeter and doesn't overpower the tomato.

Recipe and step-by-step photos — kolizhanka.net.ua.